Saturday, January 4, 2014

Sophia's Birth Story

Sophia was due on January 29th 2013, the 12 days that passed that date sucked. I was certain that I would deliver my baby early because: I was on my feet all day at work, I walked my dog every day up a steep hill, I ate spicy pinapples, I drank raspberry leaf tea and was religiously going to the gym (which I was told would make for an easier labour) well I was very wrong. Sophia came one day before my midwives were going to intervene, I did not want that to happen and thankfully on the morning of February 11th I felt something strange a brewin inside of me.
I woke up at 3am feeling uneasy and decided to get in the shower to relax but the shower and I did not agree. Instead I paced my living room for 2 hours until my husbands alarm went off. As soon as he woke up I told him that I thought he should stay home because today might be the day! He freaked out and started asking me a bunch of questions about timing contractions but I just gave him the stink eye since I wasn't in a chatty mood. After he drank coffee and woke up he thought we should call our midwife to let her know whats up, she asked to just listen to me and agreed I should come in as soon as I could leave. After a very uncomfortable 30 min car drive we got to the birthing facility where my doula/great friend Jill and one of my midwives were waiting for me, they immediately started doing what they do and said it was a good thing I arrived when I did because I was already 7cm dilated.
After I got in more comfy attire, I stepped into the warm birthing tub and Tim turned on some music so that I could be as comfortable as possible while in labour. I was well taken care of by my doula and a couple studentmidwives but a couples hours after my water broke and when I was fully dialated I was not progressing fast enough. We tried all sorts of moves and positions to get baby to come out but she would not budge and I was becoming very eexhausted. I was at the birth centre for about 11 hours when everyone thought it would be a good idea to transfer me to the hospital. The drive to my hospital took about 20 minutes, the WORST 20 minutes of my life, probably for my hunny too. Sitting in one position was awful for my back ,at the hospital I was made to sit in that same position in the bed the whole time too. The 2nd worst (60) mins of my life were in the hospital room attached to every kind of machine possible not able to sway or walk or stretch. When a woman is in labour she should be able to move ! When the Dr arrived she did an ultra sound and saw that the baby was upside down with her head cocked to the right. The Dr said she would take me on as a patient if I got an epidural and agreed to a forcept delivery (salad tongs). Since I basically had no other choice they called the anesthesiologist in and he gave me the epidural but it didn't work so he tried again but still no luck after the third time and only numb legs to show for all his work the Dr came back in with my last option. The Dr told me that I would have to get a spinal tap which would basically make me completely numb, in order to do the spinal we would have to be moved to the Operating Room so everyone washed their hands and got suited up and away we went. As I entered the room the Dr told us that if the forcepts didn't work then we were already prepared to do a c-section, my heart sunk as my dream of having a drug free water birth slipped farther and farther away. The OR was cold and sterile and I didn't recognize anyone besides my pale faced husband who was not doing well with all the needles I was being pokedwith. The Dr gave me three tries to get the baby out with no luck so my midwife asked that I get one more try and she whispered something in my ear about how strong I am and how my body could do it. It worked because at 1018pm baby girl Hansen showed up and was immediately placed on my chest but to be honest I don't remember that moment, I just remember my midwife kissing my forehead and congratulating my Husband and I. I held my baby as my body was put back together and spent then next couple days in the hospital recovering. It took me a while to come to terms with our birth experience but the nurses at the hospital took excellent care of us and all of my work friends supplied us with delicious meals. It took my body about a month before I could stand up without cringing and 10 months before I would sleep more then 3hours at a time but Sophia has been more then worth it.